The recent spate of fatal traffic accidents has brought the issue of traffic safety to the forefront of public debate once again. The discussion has thus far covered areas as diverse as speed and speed cameras, pedestrian crossings and overpasses; even road design has been brought into question. There is, however, a tragedy just waiting to happen on our roads and nobody is talking about it.

The use of child car seats and rear seat belts has been compulsory for a couple of years and everybody should be familiar with it by now. This law is designed to protect our children and yet the sight of some youngster livening up a journey by hopping from one rear window to the other is one that is still too common on our roads. One drives behind such a vehicle with bated breath in anticipation of witnessing an avoidable tragedy.

According to the traffic accidents January-March 2005 statistics published by the National Office of Statistics, 21 children up to age 14 were injured in or by passenger cars in the first three months of the year. There are no statistics about the use of seat belts and child restraints but how many of these accidents could have been avoided by the simple act of securing the child?

Various studies have shown that children are more prone to serious injury than adults and use of correctly fitted restraints are crucial to lessening the impact of even the slightest of accidents. Because a child's head is disproportionately heavy in relation to the rest of his body, the risk of whiplash and spinal injuries are significantly increased, even in accidents which occur at low speeds. By securing your child using appropriate restraints, you are lessening this risk considerably.

Unrestrained passengers are not only at risk of being injured themselves, they are also a hazard to those at the front. In an effort to drive this point home, the UK's Department of Transport recently ran a graphic advertising campaign showing an unsecured rear passenger being thrown onto the driver - his mother - and killing her.

Children under three should be placed in an appropriate child car seat which needs to be fitted correctly. Child seats should never be fitted to a seat protected by an airbag as this can cause suffocation.

Although use of child car seats is not mandatory for children over three, it is highly recommended. An adult seat belt is designed for adults, so children under 144 centimetres (approximately 11 to 12 years old) are too short to be adequately protected by an adult seat belt. Booster seats and cushions are designed to raise the child so that the car seat belt rests correctly on the middle of their shoulder and fits snugly across the thighs. An incorrectly fitting seat belt can cause serious internal injuries in a collision.

Needless to say, securing a child is not the only precaution to be taken on car rides. Any heavy bags or bulky items should be stored in the luggage boot not on the back seat.

Thirty children under the age of 11 were killed in traffic accidents in the UK during 2003. Half of them were under four years old. Thankfully, we do not experience such a large number of tragedies in Malta but we need to start protecting our kids more - even on short journeys.

Let's not wait until a child's life is lost before making this issue a priority.